History ends -- well, not yet

If anyone read this blog, I would risk a lot of grief from my fellow native New Englanders in this post. Since nobody does, I'll just put down a groundbreaking prediction for posterity, so 20 years from now, when ESPN Classic2 asks, "Who saw this coming?" they can get the movie commercial guy to intone, "One man..."

The New England Patriots are the class of the NFL, obvious to everyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the past four months. If you have been, Hi. How were the grubs?

It's pretty well accepted, with only one marginally challenging game against the Giants left on the schedule, that the Patriots are going 16-0. Super Bowl, here we come, is what just about everyone in the six-state region is thinking. I'm not among them.

If the playoffs started today, it would be a highly controversial decision since the field is not yet set. After we waved aside the Browns and rewarded their spot to the Titans, the AFC playoffs would look like this:

Week 1

BYES: Patriots, Colts

Wild Card games: Jaguars over Titans, Steelers over Chargers

Week 2

AFC Divisional games: Patriots over Steelers, Jaguars over Colts

Week 3

AFC Championship: Jaguars over Patriots

WHA??? Call me crazy, but I see the Pats getting physically dominated in the AFC title game by the Jags. This is contingent upon the Jaguars getting to Peyton Manning, of course, but when that defense comes to play, it's over for the Colts. And the Jags have something no team the Pats have faced yet has: Two dominant running backs. Jeez, look what McGahee did on his own. Imagine Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew's fresh legs pounding the Pats' weak rushing-defending line into submission, then steady QB David Garrad making the smart, short passes to grind out the clock.

Sounds to me like the greatest upset in NFL history.

The Jags have done this kind of thing before. Remember when there was no way they could beat the Broncos in 1997? They took out Elway, then still a talented chokester like Donovan McNabb in his current incarnation. The people of Jacksonville might not care a lick about their Jaguars, but this franchise has always fought to the bitter end.

The Patriots, therefore, might want to get their acts together. Their players like to talk about only focusing on the week ahead, but as of the AFC title game, there won't be any "next week" to look forward to.